We need to get past the point where the general public thinks you're a strange child for using end-to-end encrypted apps, such as Signal, even in the case when you're merely a concerned ordinary citizen who disagrees with illegal and uncontrolled mass surveillance.

Alright, when a real homie asks for help, I deliver, so here I go: my Asian American Literacy/Digital Storytelling class will have a showcase of everyone's video project on May 14th, 2019. Please come if you can attend!

Darn, I wish I could've taken dynamics... oh well, things don't exactly go to plan in life and I should stop having what Feynman calls the "Anglo-Saxon attitude" with my life and STEM/general classes...

Manjaro's Xfce is a bit curtly bare-bones compared to Ubuntu's GNOME, but, after getting the hang of it, at least I feel like I'm in control of the desktop environment (DE) in the long run - unlike in Ubuntu, where you're essentially at the mercy of whatever happens after each point release, and I haven't liked what's been happening in the DE since Ubuntu 18.04.

Sure, Xfce is a bit more stressful (especially if you have OCD) and a steeper learning curve than GNOME, but I like Manjaro's polishing of Xfce out of the box much more compared to Ubuntu's GNOME. (At least it's not vanilla Xfce, which is plain irritatingly... ugly - let's leave it at that.)

The learning curve coming from a "normie" OS (Windows/MacOS) to either Ubuntu or Manjaro are comparable to each other.

However, note that Manjaro literally requires less tinkering to get the software I need (which isn't much, but Manjaro simply has packages thanks to the official Arch repos, which easily & eventually translate to official Manjaro repos down the road) *and* the majority of the required tinkering is isomorphic to Arch, so there are less wasted moves in Manjaro.

We live in a world where stealing our attention is the most profitable business. Yet, knowledge work demands long periods of focused attention to get anything worthwhile done. We must constantly fight to protect our attention from the myriad of digital and physical distractions. Constant distraction is our default state now unless we take active steps to create focus.